Sebring International Raceway - Historical (1952)

The 3rd Grand Prix, 12 Hours of Sebring, was the inaugural round of the

1953 World Sportscar Championship The 1953 World Sportscar Championship was the first FIA World Sportscar Championship. It was a seven race World Sports Car Championship (Makes), 1974 FIA Yearbook of Automobile Sport, Grey section, page 122 international motor racing series for sp ...

and was held at the

Sebring International Raceway Sebring International Raceway is a road course auto racing facility in the southeastern United States, located near Sebring, Florida. Sebring Raceway is one of the oldest continuously operating race tracks in the U.S., its first race being run i ...

, on 8 March 1953.

Report

Entry

A total of 81 cars were entered for the event, across eight classes based on engine sizes, ranging from up to 750cc to over 8.0 litre. Of these 59 cars practised, 54 qualified to race. Amongst the mostly American entrants, the greatest news for the 1953 race was that the famous English

Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is an English manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with ...

team would join the French factory DB’s for the 12 Hour competition. In fact, David Brown and

René Bonnet René Bonnet ( Vaumas, 27 December 1904 – 13 January 1983) was a French driver and automobile constructor. Early life The young René first learned about machines working with his father, a carpenter. By 1915, with most teachers conscripted, ...

, heads of these European manufacturers, both went to Florida to watch the race. Bonnet also took part in the race.

Race

The race started at noon, and ran until midnight, on a day described as "partly cloudy and mild", in front of an estimated crowd of 12,500 spectators. The Aston Martins made a great start, leading the first 32 laps of the Florida road course before losing the lead as a result of an accident. The #57 Cunningham C-4R then took over lead and was never headed for the rest of the race. The car was driven by

Phil Walters Philip F. Walters (April 20, 1916 – February 6, 2000) was an American racing driver, who won both the 12 Hours of Sebring and Watkins Glen Grand Prix twice. Early career Walters was born in New York City and grew up in Manhasset, New York ...

and John Fitch took the winner spoils for

Briggs Cunningham Briggs Swift Cunningham II (January 19, 1907 – July 2, 2003) was an American entrepreneur and sportsman. He is best known for skippering the yacht ''Columbia'' to victory in the 1958 America's Cup race, and for his efforts as a driver, team o ...

’s team. They were boosted to the lead when the front running Aston Martin of

Geoff Duke Geoffrey Ernest Duke (29 March 1923 – 1 May 2015) was a British multiple motorcycle Grand Prix road racing world champion. Born in St. Helens, Lancashire, after retirement from competition he was a businessman based in the Isle of Man. He r ...

and Peter Collins collided with a Jaguar, and was forced to retire with accident damage. Walters and Fitch drove their Florida license plated Cunningham C-4R to victory, covering a distance of 908.9 miles, averaging a speed of 75.338mph. One lap adrift in second place was the

Aston Martin DB3 :''See Aston Martin DB Mark III for the road car often called "DB3"'' The Aston Martin DB3 and later DB3S were Sports car racing, sports racing cars built in the 1950s. Although they used some Aston Martin DB2, DB2 parts, they were quite differe ...

of the

Reg Parnell Reg or REG may refer to: * Reginald (disambiguation) * Reg or desert pavement * Raising for Effective Giving, a charity * Random event generator (parapsychology) * Raptor Education Group * Regal Entertainment Group * Regular language * .reg MS Wind ...

and

George Abecassis George Edgar Abecassis (21 March 1913 – 18 December 1991) was a British racing driver, and co-founder of the HWM Formula One team. Pre-1946 career Born in Oatlands, Surrey, Abecassis was educated at Clifton College. He began circuit racin ...

, despite reportedly being hampered by having one of its headlamps not working due to an earlier collision with a bollard filed with concrete marking the circuit on what was at the time largely an airfield. There was one car fire, the Allard-Cadillac J2X of Paul Ramos was destroyed when a fuel line split, however the driver, Anthony Cumming escaped unharmed. Another competitor, Randy Pearsall, also escaped injury when he flipped his

Jaguar XK120 The Jaguar XK120 is a sports car manufactured by Jaguar between 1948 and 1954. It was Jaguar's first sports car since SS 100 production ended in 1939. The XK120 is a highly desirable model. In 2016, Bonhams sold a matching numbers left-hand-d ...

Report

Entry

Race

Classification

Sebring 12 hours

Class Winners

Standings after the race

References